As illustrated in FIG. 29A, a printer 200 of a common type includes a paper supply tray 202 on top of a printer body 201, and a paper eject tray 203 on the front side of the printer body 201.
Moreover, as illustrated in FIG. 30, the printer 200 includes a paper supply section 205, a recording section 207 and a paper eject section 206. The paper supply section 205 includes the paper supply tray 202 and a pickup roller 210. The recording section 207 includes a pinch roller 215, a drive roller 214, an ink tank 216, an ink jet head 218 and a platen 222. The paper eject section 206 includes a roller 224, a paper eject roller 226 and the paper eject tray 203. The paper eject tray 203 is provided at a position that is lower than the paper eject roller 226. The angle (“paper path angle”) θ between the paper carrying direction A in which recording paper 240 is carried in the recording section 207 and the paper carrying direction B in which the recording paper 240 is carried in the paper eject section 206 is equal to or greater than 180°.
The recording paper 240 is supplied from the paper supply section 205 to the recording section 207, and subjected to a recording operation in the recording section 207, after which it passes between the roller 224 and the paper eject roller 226 and is laid on the paper eject tray 203 by virtue of gravity.
Herein, the recording paper 240 passing between the roller 224 and the paper eject roller 226 is carried in the paper carrying direction B while being cantilevered. Therefore, a leading edge portion of the recording paper 240 is subject to gravity and bent downward, whereby a trailing edge portion of the recording paper 240, which is on the platen 222, is subject to the upward restoring force C of the recording paper 240 itself. As a result, the trailing edge portion may be lifted up off the platen 222. Since the distance between the ink jet head 218 and the recording paper 240 is small, the recording quality may deteriorate.
In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 29B, an installation space 204 that is required for installing the printer 200 is significantly larger than the printer body 201. In an attempt to reduce the installation space, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-334963 proposes a so-called “upright printer”, including a thin, upright printer body 211 with a paper supply tray 212 and a paper eject tray 213 projecting out of the printer body 211 in a slanted upward direction, as illustrated in FIG. 31.
The paper supply tray 212 and the paper eject tray 213 are provided on the same side of the printer body 211. Moreover, the paper supply tray 212 and the paper eject tray 213 project from the printer body 211 in a slanted upward direction. Therefore, the center of gravity of the printer is shifted toward the side on which the trays 212 and 213 are provided. Thus, the printer is more likely to fall over. Moreover, even if the printer does not fall over, it creates a substantial vibration during the recording operation, whereby the recording operation is more likely to be unstable and the printing quality is more likely to deteriorate.
In the upright printer described above, the recording paper having undergone the printing operation is collected onto the paper eject tray 213 by virtue of gravity so as to smoothly collect paper onto the paper eject tray 213. Specifically, a paper eject roller 234 is provided at a position that is higher than the bottom portion of the paper eject tray 213 so that the trailing edge portion of the recording paper, which is fed forward by the paper eject roller 234, is allowed to fall down onto the paper eject tray 213 by virtue of gravity.
However, the degree of freedom in design is low due to the need to provide the paper eject roller 234 to be provided at a position that is higher than the bottom portion of the paper eject tray 213. Moreover, the paper eject tray 213 cannot be formed to extend in the vertical direction, but needs to be projecting from the printer body in a slanted upward direction. This presents a restraint on the reduction of the size of the recording apparatus.
Moreover, since the paper supply tray 212 and the paper eject tray 213 are projecting from the printer body 211 in a slanted upward direction, there is required an extra space by the amount by which the trays 212 and 213 are projecting. Thus, it is difficult to further reduce the installation space.